Retrograde Motion
by dreams of a stranger
Summary: So Edward came back at the end of New Moon, and Bella forgave him. Why? What if she hadn't taken him back instantly, and couldn't bring herself to forgive him? Carried on from Bella waking up the morning after Italy, with a couple of changes before...
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer – I own nothing related to Twilight (unfortunately), I just write about it for funsies.**

**Chapter 1.....**

I opened my eyes slowly and saw complete darkness. I was confused to say the least, waking up naturally in the middle of the night, feeling as though I'd been asleep for a week. I burrowed my face into the pillow and froze as the memories of the dream I had hit me like a freight train.

Alice turning up at my house.

Edward in trouble.

Going to Italy.

Seeing the Volturi.

The Cullens back in Forks.

I scrunched my eyes shut and shook my head against the familiar flood of pain that came whenever I allowed myself to think about the vampire that I had loved and lost; the old ache in my chest building gradually. I knew that it would soon drag me under if I didn't stop it soon...

"No!" I shouted into my pillow, praying that Charlie would keep snoring in his room across the hall.

"Bella?" I heard a haunting voice from the corner of my room where my rocking chair was._ Where _HE_ used to sit._ Great. Hearing voices even without the adrenaline rush... now I'm officially crazy. I rolled over to face the phantom voice and again inched my eyes open just enough to see through.

And there he was.

I sat bolt upright, realisation slowly creeping into my mind.

"It wasn't a nightmare, was it?" I looked over and silently cursed my brain for not being able to accurately memorise his perfect features over the months that he was... _away. _His chiselled jaw was clenched in the way that I knew meant he was thinking about how to word something. His eyes were the golden colour I fell in love with; he had clearly been hunting while I was asleep. He was sat perfectly still, more so than any human ever could, looking at me with a pained expression.

"No Bella, it wasn't a nightmare. We really did leave."

"I know that!" I spat incredulously, "I was talking about the whole nearly getting slaughtered in Italy. I know that you leaving was real, because last time I checked, you couldn't feel unbelievable pain in dreams, no matter how bad they are." I saw his face contort in pain, and knew that I should stop, but a sick part of me liked seeing him suffering after all he had done to me.

"Also, '_we' _left? From what I've gathered, the rest of your family didn't want to leave; _YOU _made them!"

"Bella, we left because..."

I cut him off "Because you don't love me anymore. Yeah, I got that much"

His mouth dropped open in a way that would have been comical in any other situation and he clenched the arms of the battered rocking chair with what looked like all the force he could use without obliterating the wood. When he spoke again it was slowly and deliberate, as though every word spoken took and immeasurable amount of effort.

"Do you honestly think that I don't love you anymore?"

"I know you don't" I said, the previous rage I felt at seeing him draining out of my body, replaced by grief. I lay back down on my side in a foetal position and squeezed my eyes tightly shut, praying that I wouldn't start crying.

There was a slight creaking sound that I recognised as the rocking chair moving, followed by a long silence. Convinced that he had been wise and left, I opened my eyes to have my vision submerged in gold.

"I love you more today than ever before, and I will love you even more tomorrow and every day after that for the rest of my existence" he whispered so quietly that I had to strain to hear him even with his face 6 inches away from mine. "Don't doubt that for a second"

"You told me you didn't want me anymore" I replied in the same hushed tone, knowing that he'd hear me perfectly. "You left me."

"I left to keep you safe, Bella"

I was stunned.

"Safe?" my voice got louder and higher in my disbelief "You think I was safe without you?"

"After what happened with Jasper..." he drifted off with a vague gesture with his hands, as though that was explanation enough.

"What happened with Jasper was _nothing_ compared to what has happened since you left. I was lost in the woods for hours after you left me, and am probably only alive because Sam Uley found me and brought me home. I crashed a motorbike and cut my head open, I nearly drowned 2 days ago. Oh yeah, and I was nearly drained by a vengeful vampire. If that's your idea of _safe, _then I guess you did well leaving."

Now it was his turn to look stunned. I didn't know if it was possible for vampires to go into shock, but Edward was doing a good approximation of it if it wasn't.

"How did you escape from a vampire?" he asked after a long and discomfited silence.

"The pack saved me" I replied. He grimaced, clearly knowing whom I was talking about. "And it wasn't just _a_ random vampire. It was Laurent." "Laurent?" Edward's eyes were wild and darkened to an inky black in an instant. "But he went to..."

"Denali, yeah he told me. Right before he told me that he was scouting out Forks for Victoria so she could kill your mate, i.e. me, because you killed her mate, i.e. James. Now I know that you didn't actually pull his head off, but I don't think she cares for technicalities."

His shocked, angry stare was starting to bore me, so I clambered out of bed and started rummaging through my closet for something to wear since I clearly wasn't going to be getting any more sleep tonight.

"Plus the logic's moot anyway, since we're not even together anymore" I said casually as I pulled a deep red t-shirt out, ignoring the sharp twist of pain in my chest at my own words.

"We're not?" he asked, hurt lacing his voice.

I had returned to stunned.

"No Edward, we're not. You left, remember?" I said, turning to face his still form on the floor with his back to me.

"But I'm back now"

"And what, you thought that since you'd decided you want me again that I'd just come running back and we could carry on like the last 6 months never happened?"

It was clear from his face that that was almost exactly what he had thought.

"I never didn't want you Bella"

"But you told me you didn't want me to go with you. You said you didn't want me." My voice was becoming higher pitched and reminded me slightly of Renee's voice when she was angry.

"I was trying to keep you safe, that's all I ever wanted." The sincerity in his voice made it impossible to doubt his motives, but it didn't erase the agony of the last months.

"It didn't work. All that you did was break, no – smash – my heart into a million pieces and make me feel like I was worthless

"I'm sorry; you will never know how sorry I am."

"No, I won't. And you'll never know how much it hurt; because I'd never leave you like that."

"I was only trying to keep you safe"

This was starting to get repetitive, and I was scared that I was going to give in and run into his arms if he kept the same soul-wrenchingly broken expression on his face. "Look Edward, can you just leave please, I don't feel like talking to you right now." He stood up slowly and made his way over to the window. "Oh, and could you please have Alice and Jasper come over? I need to talk to them both"

He spun round to face me in a movement so fast I would have missed it had I not been expecting it.

"Not Jasper" he growled softly but menacingly.

"Seriously, Edward?" I scoffed "you're _still_ blaming Jasper for what happened on my birthday? I thought you would have worked out by now that he didn't mean it. Plus he's your brother. the guilt must be killing him if you're still holding it against him."

"I'm not passing on the message. I will tell Alice you want to see her alone"

"Fine, then I'll come to your house later to see Jasper myself. Or maybe Alice would have seen my decision and will just bring Jasper with her now."

"Glad to see you know me better than my own brother Bella" Alice's perfect soprano voice sang out as she leapt lightly through the window that was still open from Edward's almost departure. "Come on Jasper, I told you she wanted to see you too. Actually..." her eyes glazed over momentarily, "I'm the too, it's you she wants to see mainly"

Jasper crept into the room and stood in the corner farthest from where I was. His face – more manly and handsome than Edward's – was wracked with guilt and sadness. Edward stared at him, I'm guessing in warning.

I sighed, "Edward, please leave"

He shot me one last distraught look before leaping gracefully through my window and running into the woods at the side of the house, taking the same trail that we took back in September where my life as I knew it was torn to shreds.

Alice picked up a notepad and pen from my desk, wrote for a second, then handed it to me. She had written –

_He's still within hearing range, so don't say anything that you don't want him to know. If you want this to be a private conversation, I can text Emmett to come and drag him home._

There was a sketch at the bottom of the page of Emmett carrying Edward in a fireman's lift with a goofy grin on his face.

I giggled at the thought, shook my head at Alice and turned to Jasper.

"What do you feel from me at the moment Jasper?" I asked him.

He looked at me thoughtfully before speaking. "Frustration, love, acceptance and confusion mainly, as well as about a hundred other things. Why?"

"Any hatred? Blame? Fear, even?"

I think that he worked out what I was getting at.

"No." He looked at me in amazement. Alice started gently bouncing beside me.

"I don't blame you for what happened on my birthday Jasper; not one bit. I definitely don't blame you for your family leaving. And I'm not afraid of you anymore than I am of Alice. Less actually if you factor in her trying to force me to shop"

He chuckled at this before sobering up quickly "But I tried to bite you Bella. I wanted to kill you. How can you forgive me for that?"

"Because there's nothing to forgive. I know how your gift works, but I've been thinking since you left – can you feel other vampire's thirst?" he nodded slightly "well then, that settles it."  
"OK, the biggest wave of resignation just hit me. What are you thinking?"

I grinned smugly at him, although I wasn't sure if that was quite the right facial expression to using for a conversation as dark as this one.

"When I cut myself on my birthday, all seven of you must have felt bloodlust of some degree, even Edward. Actually, all six of you, I forgot what Carlisle does for a living. So you're reaction wasn't you feeling thirsty or out of control, it was the product of feeling the thirst of 5 other vampires' thirsts as well as your own. Hell, I bet even Carlisle would struggle to restrain himself with that feeling"

Alice interrupted me by throwing her small arms around me into the fiercest hug she could manage without breaking my ribs, squealing like a stuck pig, as Jasper had the same expression of vampire-shock that Edward wore earlier.

"Jasper?" I asked gently, worried now.

He snapped out of it and shook his head. "I apologise Bella, I was just astonished at your theory. I can't believe that I haven't considered it before." He crossed the room in two long strides and hugged me and Alice together, since she was still latched around me. "Thank you." He whispered in my ear.

"Don't mention it." I replied. "Actually, do. To Edward – it might make him give up his little blame act and behave like a good brother again"

I heard a loud cracking outside that was unmistakably the sound of a decent sized tree snapping.

Alice laughed "That got rid of him. Edward's decided to go to and wallow in his meadow for a few hours. Or days, he's not sure"

Jasper announced that he too was leaving, to go back to the house and unpack some of the things that Esme had had shipped from where they had been living before now.

There was one last thing I needed to ask him, "Err, Jasper? I know you always kept some distance because of your thirst, but I also know that Edward had a lot to do with it. Now that he doesn't have a say about me anymore, do you think that maybe we could be friends or something?" I trailed of lamely.

"Absolutely Bella!" he grinned at me before swinging jubilantly out of the window. I don't think I'd ever seen Jasper looking so free and happy.

It was then that I noticed that Alice was still clutching me as though I was the only thing anchoring her to Earth.

"Umm, Alice?" I tapped her shoulder lightly to remind her that she was still hugging me.

"Oops, sorry," She let me go and danced over to rocking chair where she elegantly sat and draped her legs over one of the arms. "I just had a vision about how happy Jasper will be after this conversation. You wouldn't imagine how grumpy he's been since we left; although I know I was slightly to blame for that. This is the happiest I've been for months!" She swung her torso backwards over the other arm of the chair and looked at me with her head upside down. "So, what's going on with you and Edward? Happily ever after?"

I scoffed "Hardly."

"Good" she replied. That was hardly what I expected her to say "He deserves to suffer even more than he already has for making us leave."

"I –" I didn't really know what to say "But I... he shouldn't... I can't just...we aren't... I want..."

"Bella, chill!" Alice laughed at me, the sound a welcome distraction from the Edward induced muddle in my mind. "I know you haven't made up your mind about him yet, believe me, I know" she tapped her temple with a serious looking expression on her face.

"Do me a favour?" I asked, something popping into my mind.

"Anything" she trilled.

"Don't look into Edward and mine's futures. I want whatever happens between us to just happen, and not for him to know what I decide before I tell him. And if you just see something without looking – please don't tell him."

"Consider it done. I won't tell you anything I see unless it's either life threatening or so trivial that it won't change anything, if that's cool. For example, it's going to be sunny today, so if you want to avoid Edward following you all day and begging for forgiveness, may I recommend somewhere out in the open?!"

I laughed at that, "Thanks for the advice. Consider weather forecasts on the lists of things that I don't ever mind hearing about."

We chatted until the sun came up about everything and nothing: I told her about the latest episode of the Mike and Jessica saga, she told me about her two-month long trip across Asia and Australasia with Jasper, Emmett and Rosalie. I was shocked that Emmett had to be persuaded to _not _hunt an endangered giant panda when it crossed their path in China (apparently it smelt like a grizzly bear, but much sweeter and "yummier"), and was amused by his newest favourite food... koala.

"Emmet... likes... koalas?" I got out between giggles. The image of Emmett, the grizzly wrestler, tackling a tiny koala bear which was probably smaller than one of his biceps was just hilarious to me.

"Yep, and we also discovered that Tasmanian Devils aren't afraid of us like other animals. Emmett found an especially runty looking one, named it Kylie, and spent 3 hours on the phone to Esme, begging her to let him bring it home."

Laughter burst from my lips as I struggled to catch my breath enough to ask what had become of Kylie the runty Tasmanian Devil.

"Well Emmett seems to think that none of us know that he's keeping it in one of the outbuildings on the land and smuggling it chunks of meat after every hunt. He also doesn't realise that Kylie is actually a boy, although I see both becoming obvious to him by the end of the week"

I had to hide my face in my pillows to smother the sound, so Charlie didn't wake up.

"Look Bella, Charlie's going to be up in 10 minutes and will want to talk to you, so I'm going to get going. What do you want me to say to Edward, because you don't have to be a psychic to know he'll want to know what you said about him?"

I sighed: partly because I wasn't looking forward to receiving my punishment from Charlie, and partly because Edward's name hadn't been mentioned in a few hours and my annoyance still hadn't fully dissipated.

"I haven't got anything more to say to him yet than what I told him earlier. I need time to think about everything. Time without him." I took a deep breath "Tell him that I don't want to talk to him, or for him to talk to me until I'm ready. Remind him that I've been without him for months, and I thought I was going to be forever, and that there are parts of my life now that he is going to hate". I was of course thinking of Jacob, "But he's just going to have to deal with it. I am not revolving my life around what he thinks, says or does anymore; he's proved that he doesn't know what's best for me."

Alice looked at me thoughtfully for a second, and then nodded "OK Bella. That sounds fair."

Inspiration suddenly hit me. I grabbed a pad of post-its from my desk and a pen, and scrawled four words across the top one before folding it into a small square and handing it to Alice.

"Give him that, tell him it explains better than I can right now."

"Sure. Don't worry, I won't look. Or _look_ either."

"Thanks Alice."

"See you soon Bella"

She leapt out the window and ran off into woods just as I heard Charlie's snores cease. I wondered how Edward would take my note, or if he would understand what I meant by it. Even if he did, he probably wouldn't like it for many reasons. I just knew that right now, any conversation we had was going to be extremely similar to the last one: me being angry or sad, and him apologising, but claiming he left for noble purposes.

I allowed myself to picture him in the meadow, the image tainted from the terror I experienced the last time I was there when Laurent and the wolves made an appearance, and pictures him receiving the note from Alice with a leap of hope in his heart that this was an acceptance of his apology, or the grand gesture of the start of our new relationship. Instead he would unfold the note slowly, as I knew he would, stare down at my scratchy handwriting, and read the words

_White Horse – Taylor Swift_

_**A/N. Just a random plot idea I had and decided to write up. Unsure if/when I'll continue it. Let me know what you think.**_


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer – I own nothing related to Twilight (unfortunately), I just write about it for funsies.**

**A/N: I will be making a few changes to the tale prior to my story (ie Twilight and New Moon), but nothing drastic, and mostly during the period of New Moon that Bella was catatonic. Also, since I read Stephenie Meyer's amazing saga as a diary/autobiography by Bella, I figure there must be a few things she didn't write..... No one writes EVERYTHING they ever do down. Just thought I'd warn you now even though nothing to noticeable will be different for another chapter or two.**

**Chapter 2..... Edward's Point of View**

I stood at the edge of the meadow, willing my feet to go forwards, to enter the perfect space that I hadn't been to for so long. But it wasn't perfect anymore. It was tainted. Soiled. Infected with echoes of Bella's near-miss. She hadn't told me that this was where she had come across Laurent, but I could smell the faded musk of the La Push Pack, unchanged over the decades and generations, and the sweet aroma that lingers after one of my kind is burned.

The fact that it was here, in mine and Bella's private haven, made it all the more difficult for me to tolerate. Bella would have only been here for a reason relating to me in some way. Laurent was only searching for Bella because she had been with me. I had put her in mortal danger on more than one occasion – the day to day peril of associating with a coven of vampires aside – and I had left her to face it alone. She was right.

Back in September, all I'd thought about was how she was in direct danger from my family and I, Carlisle excluded. It's true, she was. But there were other dangers in this world, including the danger she posed to herself. Who did I think was going to protect her if I wasn't in her life?

I left with the plan of never seeing her again, and letting her live her life out like an average, ignorant human who was oblivious to the existence of vampires and shape-shifting people, and was therefore prepared for the news of her death to reach me in time to come. I was also primed investigate methods to end my own, as a world without Isabella Marie Swan is not a world that I wish to be part of, no matter if she was mine or not. Nevertheless, I was not expecting to hear that Bella had died for years, decades, to come, and Rosalie's phone call with the news that she had killed herself came before I had made such contingency plans. Consequently, I used my first draft idea of going to the Volturi.

Bella had a good rebuttal to my noble intentions: I left to keep her safe, but only caused her danger and heartache.

I officially loathed myself.

Bella's words to Jasper were echoing in my mind, and it just increased my self-loathing. I knew that Jasper could feel our thirst – I had heard it in his thoughts a hundred times before. Why hadn't I considered that that might be the reason for his struggle in adjusting to our diet, and not the fact that he had previously consumed human blood? Bella had been the one to ascertain this; sweet, loving, understanding Bella who had accepted me for what I was, no questions asked.

I was a fool for ever thinking that leaving was the appropriate thing to do. Even if there was nothing in this world that could harm Bella besides me, it still wouldn't have been right to leave her. I love her and she loved me. She loved my family, and they love her as one of them. How had I ever justified leaving her?

I stood in the same spot at the farthest edge of the meadow from where the wolves' scent was most potent, contemplating my own specious judgments until sunrise. As the first rays of sunlight seeped through the canopy of leaves above my head and glistened on my crystalline skin, I became aware that Alice was approaching slowly. She came to about twenty feet away and stopped with a wary expression on her face.

"You OK?" she asked tentatively.

I snorted. Very eloquent.

"I knew you'd say that," she trilled and skipped over towards me before sitting down in front of me, legs crossed, elbows on knees "Jasper doesn't hate you for blaming him, you know? He blamed himself too. None of us had even considered Bella's theory before."

"Tell him I'm sorry" I said tonelessly, staring at the floor.

"You can tell him yourself" Alice said sternly, "Come on, Esme will be wanting to see you" she stood up.

"No Alice, I'm staying here for a while. I need to think" I flopped backwards to lie face-up on the forest floor and gaze at the sky, "Bella hates me. What am I supposed to do?"

Alice's face suddenly appeared in my line of vision "She doesn't hate you, silly. She's hurting. Completely different things; trust me. Well actually, trust Jasper, he told me that a few years ago."

"Did she say anything about me?" I asked hopefully.

Alice chuckled at some joke I must have missed, and she showed me a memory of a conversation she'd had with Bella. Judging by the light through her bedroom window, it must have happened about 15 minutes ago.

"_I haven't got anything more to say to him yet than what I told him earlier. I need time to think about everything. Time without him." She paused, "Tell him that I don't want to talk to him, or for him to talk to me until I'm ready. Remind him that I've been without him for months, and I thought I was going to be forever, and that there are parts of my life now that he is going to hate. But he's just going to have to deal with it. I am not revolving my life around what he thinks, says or does anymore; he's proved that he doesn't know what's best for me."_

The memory ended there. I was crushed by her words, but understood her rationale completely.

"Time to think is a good thing Edward, it means she's considering taking you back. If she wasn't, she would have told me to kick you in the groin and tell you to go to hell. Believe me"

I laughed lightly at the thought of Alice turning into the Karate Kid on me, and absorbed what she had just said. Of course thinking was better than a firm no. Thinking was along the same lines as a maybe. Thinking, I could work with.

But what were the parts of her life that I would hate? The motorcycling and cliff-diving? Definitely, but she'd already told me about them; this information had to be new. I opened my mouth to ask Alice if she knew, since she'd clearly been at Bella's since I left, but was cut off before so much as a syllable passed my lips.

"No Edward, I don't know. I just got my sister back and we caught up with what we'd each been up to since we left. I don't care what she meant when she said that, she's Bella and I love her, no matter if she's changed since we left."

I nodded slowly.

"Now I'm going back to see my oh-so-happy husband. Make sure you're fed and back at the house before school starts; you're lucky it's spring break, so you can stay here and "think" for a few more days." She tossed a small square of yellow paper at me and I caught it reflexively "That's from Bella. I honestly have no idea what it says"

She ran off into the forest at her top speed, her thoughts completely consumed with Jasper.

I stared down at the small piece of paper in my hand, smelling the slight odour of glue that told me it was a post-it note. I slowly unfolded it once, twice, and then a third time until it was open, then smoothed it with my hands so that I could see Bella's handwriting on the harsh yellow surface.

_White Horse – Taylor Swift_

I recognised the name of the song as one of the ones that Alice had been singing in her head throughout our residency in Forks. The singer was actually the least annoying of my sister's teeny-bopper playlist which included Miley Cyrus and The Jonas Brothers.

As I recalled the song, I understood Bella's reasoning for writing that precisely.

The lyrics spoke to me in a way that I have never felt before. I have been moved by many pieces of music, but not lyrics. They always seemed too impersonal to me; they were about the person singing or writing it and not the audience. But this song that came flowing back to me with ease as I thought about it struck a chord deep within me.

Did Bella honestly see our situation like this?

The apologies from an angelic face in the first verse were exceedingly apt to the conversation we had had immediately before she asked me to leave her bedroom for the first time ever – she always used to be the one begging for me to stay, even if common sense dictated that I should leave.

The chorus declaring that the singer wasn't the subject's princess was absurd. Bella is more than that to me. She is my queen, my heart, my life.

The song continues with the line _"got lost in your eyes, I never really had a chance"_. I smiled ruefully at the memory of Bella complaining that I used to 'dazzle' her to get my way. I was worrying now that she was resentful of me for doing so.

The entire song was about it being too late for apologies and forgiveness; the complete opposite of the flicker of optimism that Alice had just given me. As much as the entire tone of the song upset me, the final chorus was what put salt in the proverbial wound with the singer declaring that she is going to find somebody new who will treat her better.

Is that the message that Bella was trying to send me? Has she already found somebody new? Was it somebody from school? Was it somebody I knew her to be friends with like Mike, or Tyler? All I want is for Bella to be happy, even if it is not caused by her being in a relationship with me, but none of the boys at Forks High School would be even one percent of what she deserves or needs. In fairness, I am not two percent of what she deserves, but I was awarding myself one percent for having the financial means to give her anything she could desire. Not that she'd take it.

I remained lying on the ground for four days and nights, pondering every word of the song that Bella had mentioned as a message to me. I considered every possible interpretation that I could think of, and liked none of them.

As the dawn broke on the fifth day I hunted quickly, ran back to the house and jumped through my bedroom window on the third floor, which was conveniently open. _Alice_, I thought. Today was the first day of school after spring break, and I knew that Carlisle had made arrangements for Alice and me to reenrol at Forks High School, despite our 4 month absence. After a speedy shower during which I used my inhuman speed to wash four days worth of dirt and grime from my skin, I dashed downstairs and into the garage. Standing impatiently next to my Volvo that was in exactly the same position as I had left it in on our last day in Forks was Alice, and surprisingly, Emmett.

"Come on Whiny McBroody, we need to get there early to see the delightful Mrs Cope" Emmett boomed as I stopped and stared at him.

"Emmett.... what are you..." I was incredibly confused as to why he was waiting as if to come to school with Alice and me since he had graduated from Forks High last summer.

"Emmett's claiming he needs one more semester of credit to make up for the 'shoulder injury' he sustained over break that's holding back his football scholarship" Alice answered the unasked question as she skipped over to me and snatched the car keys from my hand and pressed the remote unlocking button. "They'll buy it, trust me"

"Yep" Emmett responded with a wide smirk. He climbed into the passenger seat and I took my familiar position behind the wheel, "made all the more believable since I put a conscious effort into maintaining perfectly average grades, unlike the rest of you dorks"

Alice had loaded a rucksack, a messenger bag, a handbag and a ring binder into the back seat ahead of her hopping in. I assumed that they were the usual school props for Emmett, me and she.

"Yeah, such a conscious effort Emmett. Nothing to do with you spending all of your school hours plotting what you were going to do to Rosalie as soon as you got home? Or occasionally under the bleachers at lunchtime?" I asked with a raised eyebrow in his direction. He didn't look in the slightest bit embarrassed.

"Hey maybe I can convince her to make a few conjugal visits. This will be the first time either of us will have been to school without the other."

"Which forces me to ask; why, exactly are you going back to high school?" he opened his mouth to respond, but I cut him off "And don't give me the shoulder injury-slash-scholarship story"

"Err... well... you see..." He looked around the car wildly before settling his gaze on the back seat "Alice, a little help please?"

Alice sighed "Don't freak out Edward, but he wants to be able to spend more time with Bella, since I doubt she'll be coming to the house for a while, even if or when she does forgive you eventually. Which also isn't a guaranteed event."

I was shocked, although it made more sense than any other reason for Emmett to be going to school voluntarily. Besides Alice, Emmett had the closest sibling-like relationship with Bella. He seemed to find her human traits, such as her clumsiness and blushing, endearing; and he relished the opportunity to play big-brother protector for her. He never really got to play that for us in the same way. In return, Bella looked up to Emmett the way any little sister would. I think she secretly loved the fact that he would occasionally forget to act human around her and hug her slightly too enthusiastically. They shared a small amount of the same weird sense of humour and a common passion for the game Ker-Plunk. Strange, but true.

He was also very similar to Bella for me in terms of his mind. I could hear Emmett's thoughts, but it was only when he was trying to contact me silently that his thoughts were ever more that minimally different to what he would speak. It was refreshing. I heard no more from him generally than anyone else did.

I turned the key in the ignition and started the familiar drive to school. I slowed down reflexively on the road where Bella's house was and saw that her dilapidated truck was still in the driveway. We were heading in slightly early, after all.

I parked in my old spot, far away from the building, and we walked to the office to deal with the administrative details. Well I walked; Emmett gave Alice a piggy back whilst pretending to gallop like a horse. The two of them were so similar in their jovial personalities that if it wasn't for their unreasonable difference in size (both height and build), they could have passed for biological siblings instead of adopted.

Mrs Cope had the usual drop-jawed expression on her face when we walked into the office, which was preposterous since she had obviously been informed that we were returning since our timetables were on the counter. It was people like her that made me wish that I couldn't read minds. The thoughts she was having about Emmett and I, and also Carlisle and Jasper were disturbing. More so since she thought I was 17 and that Emmett and Jasper were 18.

It took 47 seconds for her to recover and then busy herself with collecting forms and schedules for us. She was so flustered that she handed us 13 maps of the school, even though we had attended this school before, therefore blatantly had no need for even one.

"Your father wasn't very specific when he telephoned last week" she said hurriedly, "so we just gave you two the same schedules as you had before. Mr Cullen, err, Emmett, you need to choose which AP classes you want"

Emmett quickly rattled off a few of his favourite subjects and got to do a coaching elective due to his "shoulder injury" preventing him attended gym class.

"Dude!" he yelled at me, waving his schedule at me excitedly "I get to help coach the senior girls last period. Isn't that Bella's class?"

Bella. Her name was like a punch in the stomach. I looked down at the schedule in my hands and saw _AP Biology_ in the same period as it was before we left. Of course it was. I hadn't even considered being in the same class as Bella. My heart leapt up into my throat instantaneously before I realised that Bella probably would not want to sit next to me. I put on my most charming smile and leant over the counter towards Mrs Cope.

"Is there any chance I could switch from biology Mrs Cope? I was unable to do it in LA, and would be extremely grateful if I could be put in either physics or chemistry instead."

She paused, stunned again. This was starting to get frustrating.

"Let me check" she spluttered finally. She turned back to the computer and tapped at the keys at in incredibly slow pace, even for a human. "There aren't any AP options available, only basic levels of both that period."

"That is perfect." I shot her one last grin before standing up straight again "Physics would be wonderful, if it's not too much trouble"

"No... No trouble at all" she printed out a new schedule and handed it to me with shaking hands. Alice's eyes glazed over for a couple of seconds. She looked at me with a mischievous look on her face and then switched to an innocently naive face. I wasn't fooled.

"Thanks Mrs C" Emmett shot her a roguish wink "We'll get these forms signed and back to you later"

I walked out of the office with him and turned to head for homeroom. Alice didn't follow us instantly, but it didn't bother me; I'd find out why later.

After a few hours of monotonous lessons, only made mildly interesting by Lauren Mallory literally falling out of her seat when Emmett and I entered our Spanish class, it was time for lunch.

I grabbed the first plate of food I saw on the lunch counter and saw Emmett do the same behind me. I was shocked to see that, despite the cafeteria being busy, our old table was left empty.

'_Sweet, as if we'd never left_' Emmett thought as he ambled past me and dumped himself gracelessly into the seat with his back to the wall.

I walked over slowly, scanning the room quickly for Bella. She wasn't there, but I was hit by a barrage of thoughts about Alice, Emmett and myself.

'_Oh my god, they're back! Those two are so hot!'_

'_I thought he graduated?'_

'_Ugh he must be back with Bella by now" _I recognised the annoying timbre of Mike Newton's thoughts

'_Wow. Who would choose to live here rather than LA or wherever they were?"_

I tried to tune them out as I sat down next to Emmett and began to play around with my food, which I now noticed was a burger and fries. I tried not to catch anyone's eye as I continued to search for Bella. Five days without seeing her was torturous after our reunion.

I was cringing from the twisted fantasies I could hear from Jessica Stanley's psyche when the door swung open and the most beautiful creature in the world walked in linking arms and chatting with Alice. Bella. I sighed as I physically relaxed by merely being in her presence. As though she could sense my eyes on her, she looked in my direction and met my look. Her expression was indecipherable as she looked away from me an instant later.

She hugged Alice and said "I'll see you later", then went and sat on the table with her friends, in the seat next to Angela.

Alice came over to Emmett and I and perched on the seat opposite me.

"Alice, why did you stay in the office after we left his morning?" I asked, although after her entrance to the cafeteria, I think I knew.

"Well since you got to change your schedule I asked if I could switch from creative writing to classical literature since it's so much more interesting." I raised an eyebrow at her in disbelief "OK I wanted to have a class with Bella too so I switched. Don't stress".

I sighed. Emmett had a class with Bella, and now so did Alice. I was praying that Bella would forgive me soon so that I too could spend time with her, even if it was just as friends.

Emmett's phone rang and I recognised the ringtone – EMF's _You're Unbelievable_ – as Rosalie's.

"Hey baby!" Emmett grinned into the phone. I didn't try to listen to Rosalie's side of the conversation; I knew that it wouldn't be something I'd want to hear. "You are?" Emmett stood up slightly too quickly for a human, but luckily no one was watching "I'll be there in 30 seconds". He snapped the phone shut and swung his rucksack over his broad shoulder. "Gotta dash guys, Rosie needs me" He waggled his eyebrows comically and marched out of the cafeteria; presumably in the direction of the bleachers.

Alice put a tiny hand over her mouth and giggled. I had to laugh as well. Emmett and Rosalie were such a perfect match for each other it was frightening some times.

It was then that I heard my name mentioned, not in somebody's thoughts, out loud. And not just anybody mentioned my name... Bella was talking about me to Angela. I immediately started eavesdropping; although it didn't really feel like prying since Bella knew that I would be able to hear her from across the room.

"No Angela we're not back together" she said with a heavy voice.

"Why not? Anyone could see how devastated you were when he left. And I saw that look you gave him when you came in, I know you still like him. Plus he keeps looking at you, so he must still want you" Angela told Bella gently. I always liked Angela, and this was just confirming my earlier fondness.

Bella looked over at me then and I gave her a tentative smile. She didn't smile in return and looked back at Angela to say "I can't just carry on as if he never left. Too much stuff has happened"

"I thought you both just decided that the long distance thing wasn't for you? Surely now he's right here..." I could tell that Angela wanted to know what she was talking about, but was afraid to question her too much. She was such a good friend, Bella was lucky to have her.

"There was more to it than that" Bella paused and fidgeted in her seat, "Some of the things he said when he was leaving put me off wanting him again."

"You didn't tell me anything about that!" Angela gasped "Like what?"

"You know what? It's not important, I shouldn't have mentioned it." Bella stood up "the bell is about to go and I need to use the bathroom before I get to the science building. The ones there are broken again"

She rushed out of the room via the doors nearest to the science building. I turned to Alice with my mouth open in shock.

'_All this time and she never told anyone' _Alice was thinking, even more stunned than I was. I knew that Bella was not a malicious person and would never say horrible things about anyone for no good reason, but I had given her as good a reason as any and she had still told people that I had left her for reasons beyond my control. The benevolence of that girl was still shocking me after a year of knowing her.

The bell rang and I said my goodbyes to Alice and headed over to the science building and into Mr Blake's Physics lab.

"Ah, you must be Mr Cullen," he said as I entered and approached his desk for him to sign my form for the front office. "I've heard good things about you from AP biology before you left. I've got just the lab partner for you". He showed me to a lab table right at the back, directed me to the seat on the left and handed me a textbook. "Hopefully they'll be here today".

I put my head down and flipped through the textbook casually with the facade of looking at the topics. Predictably there wasn't a single thing in there that I hadn't studied at a much higher level.

"Speak of the devil!" Mr Blake announced as he walked back towards his desk "You have a new lab partner! Hopefully he is someone who can keep up with you!" His jovial attitude was revitalizing compared to most of the teachers at Forks High.

I looked up and froze. Bella. Bella was my lab partner. She stared at me like I was a ghost before blinking and shaking her head. She smiled at Mr Blake and gave a weak "Great".

"Bella, I'm sorry, I switched to Physics so that you wouldn't have to sit next to me in biology." I said as soon as she was seated.

"I appreciate that." She said, staring directly forwards at the projection screen that the teacher was setting up "But biology had too many memories, and I couldn't concentrate. So I switched." I couldn't believe that she had transferred to a lower class just to escape the reminders of me. I began to wonder again just how hard she had taken my leaving.

"I'll talk to Mrs Cope at the end of the day and switch back" I told her. I would do that for her, even though I did not want to go back to biology without her by my side.

She nodded stiffly, still not looking at me.

"OK ladies and gentlemen, it's time to start our Cosmology module. Are we excited?" a few people laughed as Mr Blake talked.

He put on a video as an introduction to Cosmology and told us to not bother taking notes as we'd be covering everything tomorrow. Apparently he doesn't think it's fair to work students too hard on the first day back after break, Monday mornings or Friday afternoons. Even though working hard didn't really tax me, I was starting to like this teacher and his all round attitude and teaching style. It was as if he understood that teenagers weren't small children, and shouldn't be talked to or treated as such.

The film started, and the lights lowered. I sat back on my chair and watched Bella out of the corner of my eye. She never relaxed or looked away from the screen for the full film. A strand of her hair fell in front of her face at one point and I had to grip the desk to stop my hands from instinctively brushing it behind her ear.

Forty-five minutes after it began, the film ended and Mr Blake turned the lights back on.

"OK guys, 10 minutes left. As long as you don't make any mess or too much noise, I don't care what you do"

I turned to the beautiful girl on my right. This was my big chance to apologise properly.

"Bella, I – "

"Edward, don't." She said sternly, still not looking at me. "I meant what I told Alice. I'm not ready to talk to you yet. I can guess what you're going to say, and I appreciate your attempts to apologise, but it isn't necessary unless you've got something new to say."

I opened my mouth to speak but she continued.

"And if you do have something different to say, then that isn't a conversation I wish to have at school."

She turned to look at me, finally, and I saw unshed tears in her eyes. "I hope this will get easier soon Edward, I really do. I hate hating you."

I couldn't keep my hands on the desk any longer and I reached up and cupped her face, stroking her cheek with my thumb. "I'm here. I'm never going to leave again unless you ask me to. Never doubt that. You were right; it was never the best thing for me to leave you. I love you more than life itself Isabella Swan, and I detest myself for forcing you to believe that that wasn't true. I will spend the rest of eternity making it up to you if you will allow it"

A single tear fell from the eye on the side of her face I wasn't holding and slid down her face. She closed her eyes and leant gently into my palm. We were both perfectly still for several long moments.

"Please stop" she whispered in a voice so fragile and broken that it caused a bolt of pain into my un-beating heart.

"Stop what?" I asked quietly, not wanting the rest of the class that were chatting animatedly in front of us to hear us.

"Stop being so perfect and making me love you. It's not fair. I need to work this out without you." She stayed in exactly the same position, but I stayed true to my promise and backed off because she had asked me to. I slowly removed my hand from her face, instantly yearning for the sensation of her skin to be touching mine once again. Her eyes squeezed tightly shut when the contact was broken and then she opened them and looked directly into my eyes. I was immersed into the very eyes that I had spent months away from her imagining. Even my photographic vampire memory wasn't enough to capture the sheer magnificence of Bella's eyes. They were a shade of brown I was one hundred percent certain I had never come across anywhere in the world, and I'm sure never would.

We stayed in this position until the bell rang god knows how many minutes later.

"We need to go." She whispered.

"I know" I replied. I did know, but felt as if my body was frozen by her stare; that she was Medusa and I, her willing victim turned to stone.

Bella was the one to break the spell first and looked down as she picked up her bag. I walked out of the lab a few steps behind her, gazing longingly at her as she walked towards the stairwell.

As always during the time between lessons, the staircase was incredibly busy with students going in both directions, trying not to be late for their next class.

At the instant that Bella lifted her foot to take the first step down; a tall boy holding a tuba case knocked into her and she gasped. Anybody else would have regained their balance quickly, or grabbed onto the handrail, but Bella was hopelessly clumsy and in the middle of the staircase, out of reach of the rail. And so she fell.

In a moment identical to the one a year ago when she was about to be pulverised by Tyler's van, I ran forwards without thinking or caring about the speed I was using. I was only thinking about Bella.

I grabbed her shoulders with both hands and pulled her sharply backwards into the safety of my arms, her back firmly pressed against my chest. I could feel her heart beating at an extraordinary rate as I walked us both down the stairs without letting go.

"Are you okay?" I demanded.

"Yes. Just a bit shaken up." she replied, her voice faltering slightly.

We got to the bottom of the stairs without any more events and carried on walking until we were outside.

"Edward, can you let me go please? You're kind of hurting me"

I released her quicker than a human could have possibly released something that was burning them and stepped around to her front. There, above her collar bones were red marks that I knew would line up exactly with my long fingers. They would bruise. I had hurt Bella. I had tried to protect her from a thousand dangers since I met her, and here I was hurting her myself. I was correct after all in September – I was a monster. It would be better for her if I stayed away.

"Don't you dare start spouting that 'it's better if I stay away' crap again Cullen" Bella pointed at me as she snapped at me angrily. If I didn't know better, I'd swear she was the mind reader, not me. "You just stopped me from falling face first down two flights of stairs. Which, if I remember correctly is the excuse you came up with for my injuries in Phoenix, therefore you just save me from a broken leg and severe blood loss amongst other things."

"But Bella, I hurt you" I pointed at her shoulders, taking extreme care not to touch them again.

"No more than any human would have done had they caught me. Which they wouldn't have. You weren't so self-depreciating when you caused that knock on my head when you knocked me away from the van"

Again, she surprised me. How was this human, as incredible as she was, more logical than me? I couldn't believe that I had returned to my martyr ways so quickly.

"So thank you, Edward, you just saved me. But now I am going to be late for gym if I don't hurry. Tell me I'm welcome and then get to whatever lesson you've got now. Alice said it's with her."

"You're welcome Bella." I replied on autopilot. I was amazed at her self confidence, and still slightly in astonishment at her ability to not only know what I was thinking and feeling, but to reason with me better than any of my family had ever been able to do.

She turned on her heel and walked towards the gym. I followed her with my eyes until she was out of sight before I jogged as quickly as I could towards my algebra class which, apparently, Alice would be in too.

**Please review!! Thank you to everyone who did so on the first chapter**


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer – I own nothing related to Twilight (unfortunately), I just write about it for funsies.**

**Chapter 3..... Bella's Point of View**

I walked away from Edward and towards the gym as quickly as I knew I could manage without falling and willed myself not to turn and try to catch one last glimpse of him, despite the fact that that was the thing I wanted most in the world at that moment.

Walking into the science lab was like stepping back in time to my first day at Forks High School, and seeing Edward in biology for the first time. But instead of fear and excitement, I felt dread and foreboding when I saw that I would be sat next to him.

Sitting next to him I was, for the millionth time, infinitely grateful that my mind was silent to him. All of my old feelings and attraction towards him came rushing back to me as I fought to avoid making eye contact with the beautiful person sitting to my left. I was so relieved to be out of his presence, and to feel like I could breathe freely for the first time in an hour.

I entered the girls' locker room and quickly changed into my summer gym kit, which, unfortunately for me, consisted of shorts and a tank top emblazoned with the Spartans logo. The straps of the top showed of the angry red marks that Edward's fingers had caused when he caught me earlier. I noticed Angela glancing at the almost bruises several times through the mirror a she tied her hair back, and I gave her a shrug.

Walking outside the locker room and onto the edge of the football pitch I was shocked to see an extremely large vampire stood next to our coach for the semester.

"Ladies!" Coach Hurley yelled. How is it that all gym teachers have no other tone of voice? "This is Emmett Cullen, he's doing an extra semester here at Forks High, and will be assisting the coaches for last period and occasionally with extra-curricular sports." I caught Emmett's eye and he gave me an unbelievably huge grin, dimples on display, before returning to his menacing 'game face' "I thought I'd test him out on you, before I let him loose on the boys. Today we're doing cross-country running to get you back in the mood for exercise after break. The route is the same as always, and is marked out with yellow arrows. Questions?"

Lauren Mallory raised a perfectly manicured hand before asking "So, like, why you are back here _Coach Cullen_?" She batted her eyelashes and used her voice that, last year, she reserved for her then boyfriend, Tyler.

"Lost my college football scholarship due to a shoulder injury" Emmett boomed. I choked on a laugh at the idea of a vampire with a shoulder injury, and tried my best to disguise it as a cough. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Jessica rolling her shorts up slightly, and pulling her tank top down to reveal even more of her impressive cleavage. "So I need another semester of credit so I can keep my place and go to the same city as my girlfriend" Jessica casually rolled her shorts back down at that and her face showed her disappointment.

"Right since that's all cleared up" Coach Hurley drew our attention back to him. "5 minute warm up. You all know the drill by now" he blew his whistle sharply and we set off on the standard set of jogging and stretches that we performed at the start of every gym period up and down the touchline of the pitch.

When finished, we stood at the end of the pitch farthest from the locker rooms, facing the gap in the trees that marked the beginning of the school's cross-country trail.

"Cullen, I want you up front with the fastest one, I'll be at the end mopping up the stragglers." He blew his whistle again and we set off in a group into the forest.

Within 3 minutes I had pulled away from the rest of the class, and had set a pace that I could hold for the duration of the route, which wasn't very long. The gap between me and the girl behind me, which, experience told me, would probably be the tall cheerleader whose name I could never remember, was large enough that she couldn't see me. Diana? Deliliah? Something that began with a D anyway.

I had discovered during a gym class sometime in November that running was the one time that my poor coordination didn't seem to affect me; it was also a great way of getting rid of my internal frustration without screaming. Screaming had the tendency to make you look slightly mental. Running made you look athletic. Plus it had extra benefits – improved fitness, and more speed and stamina for dodging Mike Newton's approaches if it was a co-ed gym class.

I was in my mental zone that I fell into when I ran, and had all but forgotten about Emmett until a large hand fell onto my shoulder and made me jump two feet in the air from surprise.

"When did you become an all-star runner Bells?" Emmett's baritone voice queried "The little sister I knew and loved couldn't put one foot in front of the other without falling over, and I saw you play volleyball... if I didn't have an inhumanly hard head, I would have been scared to be in the vicinity."

I chuckled. Emmett hadn't changed an ounce since leaving Forks, and I was very happy about that. "Still clumsy as hell, don't worry. Just found out a few months ago that running fast enough to get out of earshot of the annoying girls in my class has its advantages."

His laugh filled the trail we were jogging down. "Good to know."

"So, besides the 'shoulder-injury', why are you back in school?" I asked him with a raised eyebrow. He spun round and jogged backwards in front of me with a playful look in his eyes.

"Why, to spend more time with my favourite human!" He grinned at me.

"Lauren?" I asked innocently. I batted my eyes at him in a hopeless impersonation of said bimbo. "Seriously _Coach_, you didn't need to sit through another semester of school. You could have just called and I'd have made plans with you. Just because I'm not with Edward doesn't mean I'm going to avoid all of you. Well maybe I might use it as an excuse to avoid Rosalie." I realised who I was speaking to at that moment, having relaxed around Emmett completely as I always do. "Sorry, no offence intended."

His extremely loud laughter made it clear that he had not taken the slightest offence to my statement.

"In fact," I continued, "I'd love to come over one evening to see Carlisle and Esme, if you and Alice can conspire to get Edward out of the house. Still not wanting to talk to him much." I grimaced.

"Awesome!" He pumped his fist into the air, "I'll get Ker-plunk out of the attic! Maybe I'll suggest to Rosalie that she takes Edward for a hunt. I still think she owes you after the whole 'wrongly telling Edward you were dead' thing, removing herself and Eddie from the area can be her favour."

"Sounds good, tell Alice to pick a date when she sees me accepting"

"Will do. Sorry if this bursts your bubble, but you're not the only reason I'm back at school. I was bored. Everyone's got things to do now we're settled, except me. So here I am!" he pronounced as I laughed. I assured him that I was only mildly offended that I wasn't the only motive.

"So what's with the finger bruises?" he asked all of a sudden and pointed to my shoulders, "Newton get a bit too friendly?"

"Hilarious." I told him flatly "Actually you'll find that they match up perfectly to a certain piano-playing brother of yours."

Emmett's eyes darkened and his face pulled back into a snarl that would terrify anybody who had never met him and realised what a marshmallow he truly was. "I'll kill him" he growled.

"How about waiting until I explain, you oaf?"

His face relaxed instantly. "Okey dokey" he declared. He grabbed me, lifted me up with absolutely no effort and ran at his top speed. When we stopped suddenly, I looked around and recognised the final turn in the trail before the end. My knees felt weak as Emmett lowered me to the floor. Apparently not travelling at vampire speed for a few months had removed any tolerance I might have previously built up.

"Jeez, a little warning next time?" I yelled, sliding down against a large tree trunk to sit on the ground.

He pointed at my torso. "Explain" he demanded,

I quickly outlined what had happened on the science stairwell to him. "So, in conclusion: Edward was being nice, not trying to hurt me."

Emmett huffed "I still reckon he could have stopped you a different way. Surely putting his arms around you would have had the same effect without the bruises"

"Probably, but I wouldn't have wanted his arms around me" I huffed, getting up from the ground since the feeling had returned to my legs. "If we started running again now are we going to be back way too soon?"

Emmett cocked his head in the direction of the rest of the group. "They're around 12 minutes behind us."

"Perfect." I turned and continued jogging along the path.

When we reached the football pitch again, Emmett and I climbed about halfway up the bleachers and sat down to await the rest of the class. He roared with laughter when I lived up to my earlier statement again and stumbled several times during the ascent.

We had been sat without talking for about a minute when I noticed the unusually sombre expression on his face.

"What's rattling round in that pile of meat you call a head?" I asked, nudging his lightly with my elbow.

He shot me a brief smile, and promptly became serious again. "I'm real sorry I gave in Bella. I didn't want to leave you behind. Hell, me and Alice were seriously considering staying behind on our own until Carlisle laid down the 'families support each other's decisions' law."

"I honestly don't blame you for leaving Emmett" I said soberly, "The only person that I blame is Edward"

"Yea," Emmett sighed "I blame him too".

I cracked up laughing at his expression and he wrapped both of his arms around me in a patented Emmett Cullen Bear Hug.

"Come on, they're almost done. I can hear Jessica bitching about how sweating makes her hair frizzy. Somebody really needs to tell her that her hair's always that frizzy." He stood up and held out his hand for me to take.

Sure enough, the cheerleader with the name beginning with a D came out of the forest first, followed after a minute by a gaggle of girls struggling for breath. Recognising their predicament as one I'd experienced many times before, either they were ridiculously unfit, or they'd just been kissed by a vampire. I was willing to bet my truck on the former being the reason.

Coach Hurley came barrelling out of the forest yelling at the last couple of girls in what I'm sure was supposed to be an encouraging and inspirational manner. He saw us all standing and watching and yelled at us to get into the locker room. I changed out of my gym clothes quickly and exited the locker room hoping to spend a couple more minutes with Emmett before the bell rang to announce the end of school for the day.

"Miss Swan!" Coach Hurley's voice echoed loudly across the empty gym, and he and Emmett walked over towards me from his office. "It seems we have a problem."

"A problem?" I asked, thoroughly confused. Had he noticed mine and Emmett's speedy run today? And if so, why was Emmett smiling like that? Now I know he's not the brightest candle on the cake, but he isn't _that_ stupid.

"Apparently running is the one athletic activity that not only do you not fall over thin air whilst doing, but that you are actually good at." I blushed at his accurate analysis as he continued "and since I'm not sadistic like some gym teachers, I think students should be allowed to do what they like to do in my class. However, since we do not have enough staff to supervise more than one activity, that just hasn't been possible to do..., until now."

Emmett raised a hand and waved at me. I was still confused.

"I don't understand what you're getting at." I thought it best to own up.

"Mr Cullen here has kindly agreed to supervise cross country running every day for anybody who wishes to opt for it over regular gym class, Miss Swan. Even if only _one_ student ever chooses to do it" he said, giving me a pointed look.

I felt a wide grin spread across my face as realised that this meant an hour alone with Emmett every afternoon, and that I didn't have to join in with the class when we did sports that I was no good at.

"Thanks Coach!" I managed to get out "I'm sure by the end of the semester I'll be able to run that trail with my eyes shut.

"That's another thing," Coach Hurley said "you won't be restricted to the trail. Heck, you won't even be limited to the grounds. You can go wherever you want as long as you are back in the locker rooms with ten minutes left of school. I'm trusting you here, Miss Swan. Don't make me regret it."

"Of course not." I grinned at him one last time before cocking my head at Emmett to follow me as I left the gym.

Once we were through the doors I squealed loudly, jumped as high as I could and wrapped both my arms around Emmett.

"You're my hero!" I declared as he spun me around and around.

"It was the least I could do, Belly!" Emmett crowed. He set me down and wisely kept his hands hovering about two inches away from my hips; the dizziness caused me to stumble slightly. My waist was engulfed with Emmett's dinner plate-sized hands as he gently stopped me from falling face first into the rows of lockers lining the corridor. "Come on, I'll walk you to your truck. Knowing you, you could face at least twelve near death scenarios between here and there!"

He threw a heavy arm over my shoulders and squeezed me to his side as we carved a path through the crowds that formed since the bell had just rang. He walked us into the front office and handed Mrs Cope a sheet of paper that I recognised from my first day as the sign-up sheet for new students. As we were leaving I caught him giving her a saucy wink and stifled my laughter as she blushed redder than I have ever seen on a person other than myself. When we reached the car park, I saw Alice sitting on the hood of the Volvo, waving gaily at us. I steered Emmett over to her. He wrapped his free arm around her and picked us both up into a tight group hug.

"Me and my two teeny little sisters... what could be better?" he asked as he lowered us back to ground. Alice and I grinned at him.

Despite everything, I was incredibly glad to have the Cullens back in Forks, if only for moments such as this one. I honestly saw them as family. Even Rosalie, I mean which family doesn't have that one relative you don't really see eye to eye with?

"Bella, I think Wednesday night will be good for you to come over. Carlisle has the day off, Charlie will be working late, and you're busy tomorrow after school." Alice said to me. Of course she would have foreseen Emmett telling her about our plans.

"No I'm not." I replied, my forehead wrinkling as I tried to remember if I had forgotten any plans I had made.

"Well, you will be" Alice sang.

"If you say so, then I guess I am." I had learnt long ago not to bet against Alice. "I'm going to get going, need to get Charlie's dinner on the go soon. Plus I think it's better if I avoid Edward, I don't need another awkward confrontation just yet."

I waved goodbye and walked over to my beloved truck. I climbed into the cab and turned the key in the ignition. The engine made a pathetic whining sound, but didn't turn over. I tried again. This time it gave a loud clunk before going completely silent, no matter how many times I turned the key.

_Not again!_

I leant my head on the steering wheel in despair before picking my schoolbag up and mentally preparing myself for the walk home. At least it wasn't raining. I loved my truck, rust and all, but times like this made me question my reasons for liking it.

I opened the truck door and hopped out.

"Need a ride?" My heart jumped in my chest as Alice popped up directly in front of my face. "I knew you'd have trouble, which is why I told Edward to run home after he talks to Mrs Cope." She grabbed my hand and pulled me along behind her, back towards the shining silver car. "He's trying to switch back to biology. Sorry, but I don't think it's going to work. It seems your old biology teacher and your new physics one have both ganged up and decided they like you both where you are, and don't want to leave you both without a lab partner."

"Oh, well that's a bummer. Tell him I appreciate him trying." I was mildly annoyed that I would have to sit next to Edward everyday in science, but a small, sick part of me was looking forward to it. I was still unbelievably angry with Edward and had barely begun to forgive him, but I still got the same rush of intoxicating pleasure from being near him. An hour a day would be enough of a daily fix.

"Shotgun!" I called and climbed gracelessly into the passenger seat of the Volvo, inhaling deeply to take in the familiar, comforting smell of the interior.

Emmett got into the back, looking glum. I gave him a questioning look, to which he said "I'm still not allowed to drive any of Edward's cars."

"Why?" I asked as Alice started the engine and pulled out of the school parking lot.

"Because I caused a small dent in one of them, and he told me I wasn't allowed to drive them ever again." He pouted.

"Emmett you threw Rosalie onto the roof of the first one he ever owned and managed to sex her right through the car and onto the floor. You cut the car in half, not quite a small dent" Alice chipped in.

"Yea but it was sixty years ago, you'd think he would have gotten over it by now!" Emmett had yet another massive grin on his face. I was glad I wasn't a mind reader; he was surely reliving the memory of his and Rosalie's sexcapade.

"Yeah, because Edward _never_ overreacts to _anything_." I said with as much sarcasm as I could muster, thinking again of what happened on my birthday.

Emmett rocked backwards with laughter. "You got that right!"

Alice made it to my house in true vampire-style – extremely quickly, and parked perfectly in the space that my truck usually occupies.

"We'll pick you up for school tomorrow Bella; your truck won't be fixed by then. Edward can either drive by himself or run", Alice told me just before I exited the car.

"You don't have to" I told her, "I can walk. Or jog." I smirked at Emmett "Do me a favour and make sure you 'accidentally' think of my running prowess when Edward's around?"

"Sure thing Swan" Emmett said, still in the back seat despite the front seat now being empty "And we _will_ pick you up in the morning. No arguments."

I gave a small salute "Sir, yes sir!" I chanted. I slammed the door shut and headed inside.

_First things first. _I picked up the phone and called Jacob, knowing it was unlikely he had been at school today. Since phasing the first time he was missing more school than he was going to, but luckily the head of the reservation school was on the tribal council, so made allowances for the pack.

Billy picked up the phone and handed it to Jake after a fair amount of begging on my part.

"What?" was my best friend's charming greeting.

"Wow, that's a friendly greeting." I said. Things between us were still frosty after I had ditched him to go to Italy for Edward. I had spent the last week begging for him to understand the situation.

"That's me, Mr Friendly" he grunted. "How are your other 'friends'? They back at school?"

I sighed "Yes. Well, three of them are. Although I'd only consider two of them friends."

Jacob's voice brightened slightly, "So you and the mind reader..."

"Are nothing." I said firmly, hating myself for the lie, despite how little and white it may be. Edward and I would never be completely Nothing. Even hating him as I did, I still felt unbelievably attached to him.

"Well that's always good to hear" Jake said, I could almost hear the smile in his voice.

"Anyway, the reason I am calling you, the best mechanic this side of Seattle..." I began, but stopped when I heard laughter on the line.

"Where do I need to go to fix Big Red?" Jake anticipated my question, and I smiled fondly at the nickname he had apparently given the truck years before, when his dad had owned it.

"School." I said grimly. "It sounded worse than it usually does when it breaks down."

"Louder whining?" Jake asked curiously.

"No." I said "complete silence".

"Wow that is bad. I'll drive over then and tow it back here to look at it properly" he told me, "I'll be at your house in an hour or two to get the keys"

"Thanks Jake, you're my hero." I was aware that I'd already said that to one pseudo-mythical being today, and was unsure which ranked higher – fixing a truck older than my father, or rescuing me from a whole semester of gym class. "I'll pay for parts and labour, and you should come over for dinner on your way."

"Aw Bells, you don't have to do that." He said. "Cash for parts I'll grudgingly accept, but you're not paying me to do it. Plus I'll need to bring one of the guys with me to steer the truck while I'm towing it, and I'm not letting you cook for two of us. That's a lot of food."

"Jacob Black, you get yourself plus a friend to my house in two hours and be prepared to eat. It's the least I can do."

He laughed and agreed.

I looked in the fridge and realised that there was an extreme shortage of food, especially if I was going to be feeding two werewolves as well as a hungry police chief. I grabbed some cash out of the grocery money jar and headed towards the door. I cursed as I realised it would mean walking to the grocery store, or waiting for Charlie to come home to drive me, which wouldn't leave enough time to cook. I was reaching for the phone, knowing I wouldn't be able to carry enough food if I walked, to tell Jake to come an hour later, when I heard a loud honking from outside.

There, in my driveway, sat Emmett in his massive Jeep. I grinned and ran out to him, locking the door behind me.

"Alice said you'd need a ride to the Thriftway" he told me. He got out and lifted me up into the passenger seat. He also did up the many straps on the off-road harness that I still could not figure out.

The shopping trip was, by far, the most fun I had ever had in a supermarket. Emmett had me laughing from start to finish with his comments on the produce (who knew that cucumbers could be so funny), and he insisted on carrying the many, many bags back to the jeep for me, and then into the kitchen once we had gotten back to my house.

I gave him one last hug before he left, which Charlie saw as he pulled up in the cruiser.

"Where's your truck?" my father asked as he stood watching me unpack the food.

"It died at school." I told him. He gave me a sympathetic look. "Jake's going to pick it up and try and fix it tonight, and he's coming to dinner with a friend as a thank you."

"That explains the outrageous amount of food." He took a beer from the fridge and cracked it open. "Who was that, outside?" he asked. I knew that he knew who it was. This was Charlie's way of broaching the subject of the Cullen's return.

"Emmett Cullen" I told him, not looking at Charlie as I started peeling potatoes from the sack I had bought, "he gave me a ride to the store since my truck was broken. Him and Alice drove me home, and are going to take me tomorrow morning too."

"Just him and Alice?" he asked. He scratched the back of his neck in the way he only does when he is extremely uncomfortable.

"Yes. I told Edward that I don't want to talk to him for a while, so he's keeping his distance."

Charlie sighed, I guessed in relief, "Well that's decent of him, I suppose. I'm glad you're not running back to him right away Bells, would hate to see you hurt again."

"Dad, I..." I didn't know exactly what to say to him. Charlie, obviously, didn't know the real reason why the Cullens had left. Or why they had come back.

"I know you might get back with him Bella, I'm not stupid. Just be sensible about it. OK?" for a dad, Charlie was very wise to the ways of a teenage girl's heart.

"Sure thing." I said as he left the kitchen and plopped into his favourite chair in front of the TV and turned some sports of some description on.

I was just finishing dinner when there was a knock on the door. Charlie opened it and ushered Jake and Embry into the kitchen.

"Hey guys!" I hugged them both in turn and returned to the oven to start plating up the food.

"You know, I had to wrestle Quil to decide who'd be the one to come help Jake," Embry told me, sitting down at the table expectantly.

"Oh, and you lost?" I asked, presuming that coming to collect a broken truck would not be high on anybody's fun list.

"Hell no, I won!" Embry laughed "When we were told there was a Bella Swan dinner on offer we both wanted to do it."

"You should have told me!" I said, flattered that they thought that much of my cooking "I could have cooked for all three of you."

"Nah, this way is way more fun. I would have made Jake ask if I'd lost though. Quil just isn't that smart."

I giggled. Charlie came in from the living room as he smelled the food, and we sat down to sausages, mashed potatoes and onion gravy. Jacob and Embry had mountains of potato and six sausages each. Charlie, looking somewhere between jealous and impressed, had four and I had two.

When we finished, we were sitting and digesting the meal when the phone rang, interrupting out satiated silence. Charlie answered the phone and he, Jake and Embry all stiffened.

"Hold on please, I'll put her on." Charlie held the phone in my direction and I walked towards him. "It's Edward" he told me.

_That explains the death glares coming from the other two_.

I couldn't believe he'd called me, after everything I'd said to him today, and last week.

I took the phone from Charlie and slowly but deliberately hung it back in its cradle. I spun on my heel and gathered the plates from the table, trying hard not to smile at a beaming Jacob.

Jacob and Embry offered to wash up, but I refused, since I was cooking for them as a thank you in the first place. They took my keys and I waved them off in Jake's Rabbit, praying that my truck wasn't completely dead. There was no way I could afford another car, and I did not want to walk to school or get rides from the Cullens all semester.

Charlie spent the rest of the evening looking at me with undisguised pride. It got to be so annoying that I excused myself to my room.

The next morning I made sure to pack my proper running shoes, since I knew I'd actually be able to use them instead of the floor-friendly gym shoes I was forced to use in PE normally.

Jake called just before I left to tell me that my truck was fixable, and that he'd get it done today. He invited me to hang out in his garage after school while he did it, like I used to when he was fixing the bikes, and I jumped at the chance.

_I guess hanging up on Edward convinced Jacob that I didn't want him._

Jake told me that he'd pick me up from school to save time. I was worried he'd start something with Edward, but I didn't mention it in the hope that Edward being there hadn't occurred to him yet.

_Fat chance of that._

Being driven to school by perky and perkier, aka Emmett and Alice was the perfect way to put me in a good mood for the day. Unfortunately for me, that mood was ruined when we pulled into the usual Cullen parking spot to find Edward stood there. Waiting.

_Awesome._

**A/N. Thanks for everyone that had reviewed up to now, and for those who asked about Kylie... she/he will make an appearance in a couple of chapters, so watch this space.**

***Please remember that I am from England, so I use British spellings of certain words (colour, centre and grey instead of color, center and gray being the most obvious), they're NOT spelling mistakes! LOL, don't make me argue the point that technically since the language is English, then surely the ENGLISH spelling is correct, not the American?! Haha, anyway...**

***On a similar point, I just HAD to put Bella cooking bangers & mash, which is my favourite stereotypical English food. Toad in the Hole next, maybe?! Or Bubble & Squeak (ick).**

***To answer a question I received, yes I am modelling Bella's behaviour in this story on the way I acted when I broke up with my first boyfriend in a way not dissimilar to Bella and Edward... I was slightly bitter and unforgiving, held a grudge and started running.**

***Lastly, I am looking for a beta-reader (preferably, but not necessarily, British so they get my idioms/humour/spelling), so please leave me a review if you are interested**

******* Please leave me a review if you have any comments, suggestions or questions! *******

**Ps... how awesome was New Moon!! I loved it so much, I even snuck my favourite Jake quote in this chapter... did you spot it?**


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